Metroid Prime Hunters: Deadly Invasion
by NFNintendoFreak
Summary: When what looks like a meteor shower falls in the Alimbic Cluster, 7 forces will have to unite... or no lives will be spared... My first fanfic ever, btw. Major spoiler warning for the Metroid Prime Hunters DS game.
1. Chapter 1: Unwanted Reunion

Chapter 1 - Unwanted Reunion

"Samus Aran, your mission is complete. Head back to the Galactic Federation immediately."

The Alimbic Cluster is saved. The evil known as Gorea, whoch had wiped out the whole Alimbic Order, had been defeated. The "Ultimate Power," the Omega Cannon has been put in a safe in Samus's ship. Samus was just heading back to Federation to recieve her next mission, and to rest. Until...

"You dare try to interfere with my plan of obtaining the Ultimate power for the Kriken Empire!"

Trace, a spider-like Kriken, was directly behind Samus, tracking her down. Then, a barrage of deadly Imperialist lasers!

"Is that... Trace? His ship has built-in Imperialist cannons!"

But, Trace wasn't the only one there. Pretty soon there were six ships behind Samus!

"Of all the times for my ship's weapons to be in Federation for repairs! Attention Federation. I am under attack by the six others who were after Omega Cannon and Gorea. I may not make it back. Send backup immediately."

"Where are you?" asked one of the operatives at the Federation.

"Alimbic Cluster Outskirts, close to the Celestial Archives. Heading towards Base."

"Affirmative."

"Activate autopilot, Galactic Federation," Samus commanded the ship.

Samus soon ran to the safe, and grabbed the Omega Cannon, and climbed through the ship's hatch.

"I could get killed for this, but I have no choice."

With one well-aimed shot, the Omega Cannon fired and hit Kanden's ship directly on the nose. from there, the blast caused all seven bounty hunters to lose control of their ships. Samus tried to get back into the ship, but the hatch was unoperational!

"The captains always go down with their ships."

And Samus Aran stood there, staring into the distance, knowing she was about to die. But, off in the distance, in the Alimbic Cluster...

"Meteor shower? But... nothing like that can ever happen in the Alimbic Cluster. But, what are they? Wait a second..."

But, the other hunters gained control of their ships, but they weren't shooting at Samus. They were looking in the same direction. But, little did they realize that another ship, and a giant one at that, was coming towards all seven of them.

"Oh... My... God... Those aren't asteroids..." Samus said in shock.

Then, while they were all staring, they were being sucked into the giant ship behind them!


	2. Chapter 2: They're not Asteroids

Chapter 2 - They're not Asteroids

The hunters were completely nervous. Where are they? What happened to them? And what was with that meteor shower? Samus was still trying to hold onto her own ship in the vacuum-like tunnel. Losing her grip, she immediately crashed onto the front of Trace's ship.

"Get off my ship, you pervert!" shouted Trace, annoyed, yet still wondering the same three questions as the others.

Samus just ignored him, mainly to the fact that the pressure of the tunnel was pushing her against the ship. But then, she quickly flew right back into the back of her own ship. Looking around, the hunters guessed it was a docking bay. Small robots teleported into the room, and Samus quickly recognised them; Federation docking bots.

"What kind of retard would send those things to try to attack us?" Kanden said, laughing like crazy. "Hey, wait. Let go of my ship you little pests!"

Their ships were easily carried by the bots to open areas, in front of airlocks. Samus was already walking towards the docking bay's lockdown switch, since six dangerous bounty hunters were in the area. A nearby screen soon turned on, showing one of the Federation's leaders; a video transmission.

"Samus Aran. Your mission is complete, but there are still some problems. You cannot rest. There is another mission ahead of you."

"Yes, I know. These six were after the 'ultimate power' for their own reasons; Trace, for acceptance and to lead the Kriken empire to universal invasion. Kanden, for terrorism. Noxus's reason is unknown. Sylux, to destroy the Federation. Spire's reason is also unknown. And Weavel, to kill me due to our past battles, where I was always victorious." Samus said that last part with a bragging tone.

"Stop being cocky, this is serious," sternly stated the leader.

"Sorry, sir. Anyway, they must all be destroyed, or put into the prisoner cell."

The hunters were now all wondering what would happen to them. They tried to activate their ships, but the lockdown disabled them, due to the Federation "tags" the bots attached to them. They were now forced to accept their fate.

"Actually, Samus, they will not have any punishment," the leader stated, now more serious than ever. "You may have noticed a meteor shower as you were leaving the Alimbic Cluster."

"Yes, I have. And I have also found something out before I was brought into this base."

"We have already found out. Anyway, you all need rest. We will take the weapons and disable the alternate forms of the other bounty hunters. You will all need some rest before your next mission."

Samus could not control her rage any longer. "What! There's no way we're keeping them in here! They're dangerous criminals and must be eliminated!"

"SAMUS! CALM DOWN OR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED! Anyway, they are all needed on our next mission. Now, go get some rest."

Later that day (or as the clock in the base shows), Samus was starting to control herself. But, there were still many things on her mind. Why were the other hunters being allowed to stay in the base and not in the prisoner chamber? And why were they necessary for the next mission?

"I've got more important things to worry about. What's for dinner? I'm starving!"

As if they read her mind, the speaker in her "room" called to her, "Samus, Kanden, Spire, Trace, Noxus, Sylux, and Weavel, please report to the dining area." Surprisingly, when Samus got there, she noticed the other hunters acting very polite, as they were told to do.

"How much did they bribe you to act like this anyway, Sylux?" Trace whispered to Sylux.

"Actually, $250. Then again, they're humans, so I don't know how much that is in my own area."

Many other side conversations started while they were eating (including the fact that all the other hunters were surprised that Samus was human, and even more surprised she was female). But then, the leader who appeared on the transmission in the docking bay came out onto a stand nearby.

"Attention. Attention."

At that moment, everyone became silent.

"I am sure you are wondering why we have not put you into the prisoner chamber. And why we let you stay in some of our best rooms. It is because you are all needed for the most dangerous mission we have ever had."

At this moment, Samus came onto the stage.

" We understand that you and I are all rivals. But this is an important mission. That was not a meteor shower in the Alimbic Cluster earlier. I have looked as far as I could, and had discovered something. Those were not meteors."

"Then what the heck are they! Cause unless it's something that could destroy the entire Kriken Empire, I won't do a thing!" Trace screamed.

"Oh, you will need to help. This could destroy more than the Kriken Empire. It could also destroy Cylosis, Vho, and the entire universe. There were millions of meteors. But they are NOT meteors...

Everyone was silent and seemed to forget their rivalries at this point. They knew it was something awful.

"They're Goreas..."


	3. Chapter 3: Into the War

Chapter 3 - Into the War

At this time, everyone was too shocked to move. Even Sylux, who would have tried to destroy Federation by now wasn't even moving. The room was filled with dread and terror.

"We do not have much time. The Alimbic Cluster, as you know, is void of any intelligent life. The Goreas will train, reproduce, and evolve. There are still traces of all our affinity weapons left on the planets there. The Goreas will eventually be unstoppable. Whether you are a criminal, hero, or looking for your past, WE MUST FIGHT BACK NOW!" Samus screamed, now out of breath.

"But what if-" Noxus started to say, but was instantly silenced.

"There are no buts in right now. For the next week, we will all be practicing advanced combat techniques, techniques I haven't even mastered yet. The Federation has researched all of your species, and have created new 'powers' for all of you; they are the same powers that the Chozo have invented years ago, the ones that are used in my own power su-"

An alarm suddenly started blaring through the station. Blinding flashes of red lights were everywhere. It was the attack alarm!

"The Goreas have crashed through the docking bay windows! Take evasive action IMMEDIATELY!" screamed one of the guards.

"We have no chance to survive! We must make our time! Everyone, use your alt-forms to go grab your weapons! A path to the docking bay will be lit normally, no alarm lights. Use that path to get the docking bay!" Samus was giving out as many orders as possible in this small amount of time.

At this time, however, Samus remembered the Omega Cannon, still in her bunker, which is the farthest from the docking bay than the other hunters'. She would never make it to the ship, but if she left the Cannon, then one of the Goreas would absorb it. The traits would pass to its offspring. They would all have the Omega Cannon ability, at ten fold. Eventually, they would be able to destroy the entire universe. She must go back and get it.

"Samus, what are you doing!" Sylux screamed. He saw that she was heading for the complete oposite side of the station.

"The Omega Cannon! It's still in my bunker! The Goreas cannot retrieve it!"

"I'll get it! Get back to your ship!" Sylux ordered. Although, the only trust in his voice was fake.

"I can't trust you just yet. We're in a Federation research ship, and everyone knows your grudge against us." Samus then ordered a guard to follow Sylux on his way to the docking bay.

Samus was already almost to her bunker. Getting closer, though, she sensed life.

"That's no guard..."

Next thing she knew, she was face-to-face with another Gorea. But this time, there was no way to fight it without destroying the station. There had to be a way around.

"The leaders are gonna hate me for this..."

Samus then aimed a fully-charged missile directly at a certain point in the wall. It was still being repaired after a major accident months ago. With a deafening explosion, the construction site was yet again an open hole into her bunker.

But then, something quickly grabbed her from behind and started to throw her all around the room! It was a tentacle, the kind that gave the Goreas the hunters' weapons in the first place! But wait. How does it have this ability without the seal sphere! But there was no time to think about that. The tentacle was smashing her against the wall, destroying everything in sight! Then... another tentacle! This one looked more menacing for some reason. Now she knew why. It went straight into her chest like a bullet! Weakening, Samus started to collapse. Everything then went black.

Samus came to several hours later. Where was she? She looked around, seeing a very primitive-looking ship. Made of... rocks? Looking out the ship's window, she found her own ship being towed by this one. Then she realized. She was in Spire's ship.

"Spire? What the heck happened?"

"So, you're awake. Anyway, we were all in the docking bay when we realized that you were missing. The others didn't care. But I know what it's like to lose a... never mind. Never mind. Just a flashback from my past, before the rest of the Diamonts went extinct, when I was only about two. I still don't know what happened... Anyway, the others were already leaving, but I decided to run back. I remembered you talking about an "Omega Cannon" and figured you were trying to retreive it before a Gorea did."

Samus then looked down at her arm cannon. "Oh... my... God... That Gorea... it sapped the Omega Cannon right out of me!"

"WHAT! Isn't that the ultimate power we all heard about? And they took the whole thing... not just a small part like that other Gorea did with the rest of us.. If that's true, then the Goreas will eventually have an army of Omega Cannon users! I'll tell you the rest later. Right now, we gotta catch up with the others and find the Gorea that took the Cannon."

The ship then went into max speed. The Gorea's had the Omega Cannon, able to be passed easily to other Goreas, due to their ability to absorb weapon shots. The war was over before it started...


	4. Chapter 4: The Second Secret of Alinos

Chapter 4 - The Second Secret of Alinos

The Alimbic Cluster was nearer, covered in flames. The Goreas had taken over, and were fighting for supremacy. The other hunters, all ahead, could not get past the falling Goreas. There was almost a solid wall of them.

"Oh my God. They have already spread the Omega Cannon," Samus stated. She had just seen a huge explosion on the Vesper Defense Outpost.

"I'll take care of this," Spire said, confidently. He stepped right out of the boulder-like ship, and started firing Magmaul blasts.

"I think I just found their weakness. They always change to different elements, as we already knew. But, apparently, they all change at the same time! That's why your Magmaul was able to blast through them all!" Samus exclaimed.

Spire then came back into the ship and immediately flew into the rain of Goreas. "Yeah, but eventually they'll be too powerful for these weapons. They always raise their defense, in case you haven't noticed. And... they also have an "alt-form," in a way. Remember, you need the Cannon to defeat that form?"

"Oh cra- Wait a minute. How come there's more fighting on Arcterra, VDO, and the Celestial Archives than on Alinos? Spire, set course for Alinos. There's something wrong there," Samus ordered. She was right. Something was wrong on Alinos... but what?

"Ok, we're here. Now what?" Spire asked, bored.

"Get Trace. We're gonna need stealth here. And if you can, repair my ship. It was slightly damaged from being towed. We'll need it later," Samus ordered.

"Right." Spire unhooked Samus's ship from his own, thenmessaged Trace.

"Trace. This is Spire. We need your help on Alinos; stealth is necessary. Come A.S.A.P. Over."

Almost immediately, Trace came down to the Alinos Gateway. Spire started to get to work on the Samus's starship.

"All right. Samus, you'll need this. It's a cloaking medicine. Usually, we Kriken use them for viruses that disable our natural cloaking ability. It has never been tested on a human, though, so it may be fata-"

Without letting him finish, Samus immediately took off her helmet, held her breat, and swallowed the medicine.

"-al. Did you really just do that!" Trace finished.

"Well, apparently it's safe. Hey, wait. Why are you trying to help me in the first place?" Samus asked, suspicous of Trace.

"Long story. I'll tell you later. We gotta hurry, though. That medicine will wear off if taken by anyone other than a Kriken. Oh, and in order for it to work, you'll need to be in your Morph Ball, or have the Imperialist equipped. Now, let's hurry!" Trace ordered.

After almost an hour of searching, the two hunters had no idea why the Goreas were afraid to come here, except for a few. And one of those few was right in front of them! Trace immediately held out his arm to block Samus's path.

"What are you do-" Samus began, but was silenced by Trace.

"Gorea. Stand completely still. Even these things can't detect cloaked lifeforms. The cloaking will only be in effect if you stand completely still," trace whispered to Samus.

The Gorea started walking towards them. Trace was right; the Gorea cannot detect them.

"Raaagraah!" The Gorea screamed, frustrated. It then went down into the Council Chamber, out of sight.

"That was close. But... is it just me or is that thing headed to the core of Alin- The core! Years ago, it imploded. That's why Alinos is a molten planet now! Hurry, we have to make it to the core first!" Samus exclaimed.

Trace just shook his head. "No, impossible. I tried when I was looking for the Octoliths. No way down."

"Yes, there is. There is a room near the Combat Hall. it's where I had to place the Octoliths to reveal the Oubliette. There was this thing on the wall, I couldn't scan it or anything. It's probably a new path!" Samus immediately grabbed Trace by the arm and started running towards the Combat Hall.

"C'mon, these things are just gonna keep on coming!"

Kanden and Sylux were on the Oubliette, seeing if there was anything here to defeat the Goreas.

"It's no good! Just run! That place where we were almost killed!" Sylux ordered.

"You mean...," Kanden began to say.

But before he could finish, another ten Goreas were after them. They were in BattleHammer mode!

"Barrage! Go in alt-form!" Kanden shouted.

Kanden easily folded up into the insect-like StingLarvae, as Sylux did into the LockJaw. Leaving behind tons of bombs, they reached the dome-like room, leading to a portal. But, another Gorea was blocking the door!

Coming out of alt, Sylux said in shock, "Oh crap! It's turning black, invincible! It's gonna USE THE OMEGA CANNON!"

And after a huge explosion, the Goreas left this area. Sylux and Kanden were nowhere to be found...

"What the hell is that...?" Samus said, staring into the (now dry and cold) core of Alinos. There was some kind of huge craeture's body lying there.

"I don't know, but I sure hope it's dead..." Trace said, shocked.

At that moment, Samus accidently released a shot from her arm cannon, shooting the ground below her.

"Nice going, Samus. You just made me realize that... that thing... is... alive..." Trace said, now starting to back away.

The creature then started to stand. A six-armed, mutant reptile-like thing, and... it looked even stronger than a Gorea!

"If we can just find a way to train this thing, we'll be able to- OH MY GOD!" The creature just grabbed Samus in the middle of her idea. She could feel her suit slightly snapping under the power of this creature.

"Samus, I just found out what it is! And I could've sworn Metroids weren't in the Alimbic Cluster!" Trace shouted. But then, he immediately started firing Imperialist shots at it.

"Aim for the eyes, Trace! The eyes!" While shouting this, she looked at the thing trying to suffocate her. It was... some kind of fusion of an Omega Metroid and a Metroid Prime!

"Samus, try to use your ice beam! This thing lives on Alinos cause it has a giant weakness to cold!" Trace commanded.

Samus was starting to feel dizzy. She would pass out at any minute. just one chance, she thought. Getting some energy into her arm cannon, she fired her Ice Beam. Wait. I also have Noxus's Judicator! Realizing this, she tried to combine the two, just by using the energy in her right arm. A slight fusion shot, and now she just had to FIRE!

The creature's arm immediately froze! "Trace, missiles! Fire as many as you can!"

Under order, Trace shot at least twenty missiles at the Metroid's forearm. Trace's plan worked. The arm cracked off and samus was freed.

"Trace, c'mon. We gotta get out of here! This thing'll kill us if we stay any longer!"

"We just have to remember it. We may be able to free it and have it kill the Goreas later on" Trace said, while running for the exit.

"We can only use that as a last resort. It's too dangerous. Just worry about getting out of here alive!" Samus yelled.

"Ok, we're all gonna need some training. The first day of this war, and all seven of us were almost defeated. Alinos is basically deserted of Goreas. There are only about seven or eight there. We head there in the morning." Samus was sending a transmission to the other hunters. They were all in their own ships on the outskirts of the Alimbic Cluster. They could still see Goreas orbiting around the five planets. The Goreas may be the universe's dominant species soon...


	5. Chapter 5: Return to the Oubliette

Chapter 5 - Return to the Oubliette

Trace was still trying to recover from his encounter of the Supreme Metroid (as Samus had dubbed it). Metroids may be able to travel through space, but SR388, the home planet of the Metroid species, is millions of miles away from the Terra Galaxy, where the Alimbic Cluster is located.

"Hmm... Well, there is a chance it was here when the Alimbic Cluster was attacked by the 'original' Gorea. The elders may have been researching Metroids in secrecy or something. Meh, whatever. Goreas, you're going down!" Trace yelled this last part out of the side of his ship. He was still a bit crazy from that encounter.

But something was wrong. He hadn't heard from Kanden or Sylux for a few hours. Last time he checked, they were on the Oubliette. Immediately, he flew to the prison planet.

"Sylux? Sylux! Where the hell are you!" Kanden screamed.

This part of the Oubliette was a dark and sinister place. It was mainly a building-like structure, with platforms and jump pads leading to the top. The top was the most frightening part of all; Kanden felt a faint drop in temperature and a dark aura as he entered it. It was mainly just a round, blue arena.

"Great. Lost in this part of the Oubliette with no escape. Why did I go into the center of that other room? Those things on the wall shoulda been a clue that something bad would happen. Stuck. Alone." And little did he realize that there were seven Goreas coming up to him, ready to strike!

"Oh, crap. Goreas. How the heck do I get out of here!" Kanden was starting to go crazy. But then, out of nowhere, the Goreas all turned to a bright shade of yellow.

"Yellow, yellow. What do the different colors mean! Oh, right! Their weakness! Oh crap, they'll change any minute! Uh, uh..." Without thinking, he immediately started to fire Volt Driver shots, as if his gun was a machine gun. One by one, the Goreas' arms exploded. And then, they jumped off the sides of the platform!

"What the hell!" Kanden thought that they just committed suicide. But he soon dropped that idea when he saw seven gray, egg-shaped creatures flying towards him. And... they had Gorea heads!

"Oh my God! This is what Samus meant by the Goreas have an alternate for-" Before he could finish, a barrage of lasers and meteor-like objects shot at him! In excruciating pain, Kanden decided to try a last desperate attempt at freedom. With a running start from across the arena, he jumped on the back of one of the Goreas!

"Yeah, now we're talking!" He shouted. Clinging on, despite the Gorea going crazy, he turned it toward one of the others. He then started taunting it. As if meant to happen, the Gorea fired the rocks and lasers at Kanden.

"You missed, you retard! Ha!" Kanden shouted, jumping off the exploding Gorea. He then repeated this process with the others, until there was only one Gorea left. He then jumped onto this last one, doubting his next idea but trying anyway.

"Now let's see what you can do," he said to himself, as if he were talking to the Gorea. Despite the Gorea's awesome defense, he started to shoot the back of its head.

"Green vapor! Go!" he ordered. He faced the sky, tried to turn the Gorea towards it, and shot it repeatedly in the back of the head with his Volt Driver. As if it were trying to help him, the Gorea went straight towards the sky.

"Whoa. Where am I? Why's the sky all red like that?" Sylux was wandering around the outside of the Oubliette. One of the Goreas carried him out here and threw him off the Oubliette, but his stolen Federation technology was able to bring him back to the surface. The outer surface.

Looking around, he soon realized, "Wait. This is the Oubliette's outside! How am I supposed to get off here, though?" He pressed a single button on his gun, and almost immediately, the Delano 7, his ship, came straight to him. "Oh, duh." Anyway, he then started to head towards the Celestial Archives, thinking there may be something there to help. And if not, he was planning on going Gorea hunting anyway.

As soon as Sylux left, Trace arrived from the opposite side of the planet. "Was that Sylux? Oh, he just left. But.. Where's Kanden?" Trace went into his crab-like alternative form, the speedy Triskelion, and started running towards the center of the Oubliette. But coming from behind were more Goreas!

"Crap! I gotta hurry!" He then started using his alternatative's attack, a flying charge, to head there even faster. Soon enough, he was in the center room, next to the portal that leads to the first arena of the Oubliette.

"Trace? That you?"

"Kanden! Where are you!" He recognized the voice as Kanden's, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Look up. Hehehe..." Kanden sounded like he had something to hide. Looking up, Trace soon found out what.

"YOU TRAINED A GOREA!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. Apparently, Kanden WAS able to train a Gorea. And it actually seemed to like him, as if it were a dog!

"Yep. I knew this one seemed a bit different since I've seen it. I realized later that it just received its solidified form from the vapor. Basically, it's a kid. Easy to train." Trace was still wondering how Kanden trained it in the first place, but he'd worry about that later.

"Well, ok, but one Gorea under our control won't help too much. Maybe a little, though. C'mon, I saw Sylux heading to the Archives. And Noxus is still alone on Arcterra. Samus is on the Vesper Defense Outpost. I'll go help Noxus, you go to Alinos and work with Spire. We're done with the Oubliette, and the Octoliths are still activating the Alimbic Cannon. Use it to seal up this place," Trace ordered.

"Right. Now let's head outta here. C'mon Gorea, you're coming with us."

"Reeaaww!" the Gorea said excitedly.

"..." Trace just left without saying anything.


	6. Chapter 6: Cold Blooded Killer

Chapter 6 - Cold Blooded Killer

"Man. There's nothing here. Nothing," Noxus complained to himself. He was still wandering around Arcterra, finding nothing. The only things around were Goreas, but he was able to sneak past them. He started to head back to the gateway.

"Well, at least those Guardians are gone. All killed by the Goreas," Noxus said, bored. But as he reached the pillar-like gateway, he heard some kind of buzzing. Looking up, he saw a red, reptile-like ship.

"Hey, Noxus!" Trace yelled from the top of the room. Apparently it was his ship.

"Trace? What are you doing here?" Noxus said, still sounding bored.

"Came to help," he easily explained.

"Great. Now you think I'm a failure, too," Noxus said, depressed. He started climbing to the top of the room, trying to get to his ship.

"I never said that. C'mon, we're a team. Hey, where you going?" Trace saw Noxus climbing into his ship, ready to leave.

"I'm going home. I want out of this damn war, out of it all! Going back to Vho, permanently. I mean, everyone thinks I'm a failure. I can never do anything. I've never even SEEN an octolith last time I was here! See ya," Noxus then got it in his ship and started to leave.

"Wait! I was just coming to help! We're all in groups of two to three, and I volunteered to help you! Wait!" Trace was shouting to him. But, he didn't hear a thing. Noxus was leaving.

With a last desperate attempt to keep Noxus in the mission, Trace started to turn slightly invisible. Aiming his gun at Noxus's ship, he set up the Imperialist. He had perfect aim; close to the engine, enough to stall the ship, but not close enough to destroy it.

Noxus, in his ship, was starting to send a message to the others, saying he was leaving. "Alright, I'm out of here. You guys all think I'm a failure? Fine with me. You guys suck. Over," he said, depressed and angry. The others, upon hearing this message, all had the same expression; an expression of both shock and guilt.

But then, something suddenly shot the engine of his ship! He was going down! His ship was disabled from the shock... or so he thought.

Trace was checking his map, and his sniper coordinates, to see where the ship would crash. "Sic Transit. Good," he said to himself, and instantly turned into his Triskelion. He then hid in one of the many subterranean areas of the Transit, with his Imperialist ready.

"Whoa. Trace? What'd you do that for! And where are you" Noxus screamed.

"I wanted you to stay in this war. You can help us. Your Vhoscythe and Judicator are some of our best assets," Trace said reassuringly.

"Where are you? But anyway, screw that. I'll just be holding you all back."

"Yeah, you would!" Trace yelled, then immediately fired an Imperialist laser right next to Noxus's head, barely missing!

"What the hell was that for!" He screamed at Trace, his blood racing. He knew what had happened; Trace was a traitor in this war. The Kriken should never be trusted, and Noxus learned this the hard way.

"I am a Kriken! That's what we do!" Trace yelled, proudly. This is insane, Noxus thought. But he coudn't think any more. Trace was firing a barrage of lasers at him, just like the last time they were in this room. Only this time, Trace was protected by solid walls, not vulnerable on the bridge. And, Noxus was still slightly worn out from searching the planet. This could be deadly.

"WHAT! NOXUS, YOU'RE ONE OF OUR BEST SOLDIERS! I'll be there soon." Samus was in her ship, and she had just recieved the message Noxus sent. But when she replied, Noxus's ship, the Vhocor, had lost transmission, and engine power. Immediately, Samus set pilot to Arcterra. The Goreas could wait. With one less soldier on their side, the hunters could lose.

"I've been wanting to this for a long time now! Ever since the last time we were here! I may have missed before, but that's about to change!" Trace was going insane, trying to kill Noxus no matter what. But now, he was nowhere to be found. Looking around, confused, Trace started to head out of this room, his sniper range. But then, he suddenly got hit by a spinning blade, knocking him back! Noxus had come in through the other door and attacked him with the Vhoscythe!

During this fight, little did they realize that the StarShip was flying above them, landing in the Arcterra gateway. "Sic Transit, of course. I saw some blood down there. This could get ugly," Samus said to herself, heading to the Transit. As soon as she got there, though, it was too late. Noxus's corpse was lying on the ground, covered in blood and seemingly lifeless.

"Oh... my... God... Trace! We trusted you! But now, you're going down!" Samus screamed. She grabbed Noxus's gun, and started firing both missiles and Judicator shots at once. Trace could be anywhere, cloaked.

And then she realized. Cloaked... She still had the effects of the cloak medicine Trace gave her! She quickly changed her arm cannon weapon to the Imperialist, and instantly turned invisible.

"Samus! I'm glad you're here," a voice said from somewhere above, obivously Trace's. "I forgot to tell you before. That cloak I gave you, it HAS been tested on humans. And it is very, very deadly to them."

Samus just froze. In what she thought were her last seconds of life, she instantly started firing everything she had; Wave Beam, Volt Driver, BattleHammer, Ice Beam, everything. Trying not to kill Trace, she aimed more for his lower body and arms. Hopefully this will paralyze that sludge, she thought. Dodging shot after shot of Imperialist lasers, she found a way to the collapsed bridge above.

"You can't hide forever, Aran!" He screamed to her. But she was able to ignore this taunt, and, still cloaked, shot Trace right in his firing armm, spurting blood everywhere! After a few shots, it started to limp, as if lifeless. She then repeated this with his three other limbs. Everywhere, there were green puddles of blood. Trace was almost completely immobile; even his Triskelion technology wouldn't work. He was severely injured.

"Alright... you win... Just finish me off quickly," Trace said when Samus came down to him, aiming her two guns at his face. But then, she decided to lower them.

"Wha.. what are you doing? You won. You get to live, I die. Just end it now!" He sounded almost insane. But, despite what he was saying, Samus didn't do anything.

"No. I don't believe in killing friends, even if they are traitors," Samus said, with a slight tear in her eye.

"But... but what about that?" He said, turning his head to look at Noxus's body.

"You only stunned him, like I did to you. Only much worse, you little shit. Well, I'll make you a deal. You give me the antidote to the cloak, and I'll let you live. But, you MUST stay in this war. You do realize you could be saving your entire species," Samus stated, still tired from the shock of this. She was pretty sure Trace wouldn't agree, but it was worth a try.

Power... Glory... Fame... Maybe I should actually listen to her. Stay in the war. Otherwise, I'll be like Spire; the last of my species. "Just... one little thing," Trace asked.

"What's that?"

"Could you heal me first?" He sounded almost pitiful.

"No. Until Noxus is healed, you won't be either," she said, mockingly. She knew that, despite the pain he was in, he could still be a traitor.

"Wha... what'd I miss...?" Noxus asked, struggling to say these simple words.

Trace almost passed out, seeing how long it'll take for Noxus to heal.

Samus grabbed both of them, carried them over her shoulders like rag dolls, and started smiling to herself. Do they even realize we can heal them instantly?

Back in her ship, Samus was watching a new monitor; 'Tracecam,' as she called it. She had put a bug in Trace's ship before he left.

"Attention all hunters. Report to Alinos Gateway immediately. It is our only safe zone, and we need plans and recap. Over," Samus decided they needed a meeting, especially after the Trace incident.

"So, what's up?" Spire asked, still trying to keep some cheer in the war.

"We are running out of time. The Goreas are starting to take over. We need some kind of weapon to use against the-" Samus said, but was soon interrupted by Kanden's Gorea.

"Reeaww!" The Gorea screeched, as if it thought it could be that weapon.

Smiling to it, Samus continued, "No, sorry, but you will only be like another team member. Not a weapon. But, we still need a weapon. Any ideas?"

Sylux soon started to talk. "Well, while on the Oubliette, me and Kanden noticed something. They always change their weak element in unison. If we can somehow make like explosions of our weapons' elements throughout the Cluster, they'll all die!"

Weavel, the knight-like space pirate, soon talked. No one had heard from him at all during the war until now. "That won't work. They still have the secondary form. This form, as you know, is almost invincible. As I have heard in transmissions, however, Kanden discovered they can kill each other easily. So, we must capture newborn Goreas, like this one."

Everyone just stood there, shocked. They had never heard him talk before, except for Samus, of course.

"Why's everyone staring at me?"


	7. Chapter 7: The Alimbic Cannon

Chapter 7 - The Alimbic Cannon

After their meeting, the hunters immediately set off for the Vesper Defense Outpost, a subzero space station made by the Alimbics.

"Okay. We gotta find parts we could use for that superweapon thing. Hopefully it'll work. But remember, it'll take a few days to build it, maybe a few weeks," Spire was saying to the others.

"Right," said Samus. "Then we have to look for newborn Goreas. Keep on the lookout for smaller ones."

The search for parts began. It seemed more like a scavenger hunt, since even after an hour the only parts found were frozen, unable to be used. They went back to the VDO Gateway for another meeting.

"Spire, give everyone a Magmaul. It can be used to heat up the parts so we can use them," Sylux ordered.

Almost immediately, Spire started passing out orange orbs to the other five hunters (Samus already had it), which they loaded into their guns. They set off for parts again.

"Okay, let's see here. We have a power generator, steel plating, and a drill. Hopefully the others have some stuff we can use," Trace was saying to Spire. Although, neither of them payed attention to his words, not even himself. They were both too deep in thought.

"I'm gonna go to Alinos. No Goreas are in the Oubliette, so we can seal it off. The Octoliths are still there," Spire said. He was still wondering about his past, and thought that the Alimbic Cannon may give him clues about it. What happened the rest of his race, making him the last Diamont? What were they like?

"Spire, you feeling okay? You seem kinda sick," Trace was said, dropping the parts. He had finished his thinking, and had decided; he would be a traitor... a traitor to the Kriken Empire.

"You know how to do this? It's kinda tricky." Kanden was explaining to Weavel how to train a Gorea.

"Kanden, you are an altered Enoema; a life form built to be a super-weapon using the original species's powers and altering the mind. I am a former space pirate; a life-form who captures creatures for research and power. I think I can handle this," Weavel said. Kanden had no clue what he just said.

"Huh? Oh, whatever. You just need to jump on its back and shoot it in the back of the head. Then start talking to it. That's how I trained Denkan here," Kanden said.

"Reeeeawww!" Denkan excalimed.

"Uh... Denkan...? Anyway, I have an easier way." Weavel then split in half for his alternate form, the Halfturret. Kanden immediately ran behind a wall to hide from the Battlehammer shots the turret was shooting.

"Hey, watch it!" he shouted at Weavel. But he just ignored him. Instead, he used his upper half of the Halfturret, the Halfturret Slicer (or, his head, arms, and torso), to attack a nearby Gorea. Next thing Kanden knew, Weavel had it under his control. He then turned back into his biped form.

"You just got lucky."

"What'd you guys find? I found the dead body of a Guardian, which may actually work to our advantage," she said, pointing to a robotic thing with a head like a Kriken and a body of a chicken. "I also found a few UA packs, which we should keep stored in the weapon. And this part of a dead Cretaphid tower may be able to power the weapon."

"We couldn't find anything," Sylux and Noxus both said in unison.

"Nothing? Not even some glass or sheet metal? Nothing! Go back and search, we don't have much time."

On Alinos, Spire was about to activate the Alimbic Cannon.

"Hey, wait. What's that hole right there?" he said, obviously staring at a hole. Looking in, though, he saw a giant beast. The Supreme metroid...

Ignoring this, he went to the Almbic Cannon activator in the middle of the room. With one step, the Oubliette would be sealed. But, the Cannon was running out of power. It would need to stay dormant for twenty years after this to be able to be used again. But he activated it anyway.

The Cannon, on Alinos's surface, started turning towards the Oubliette. Suddenly, it shot a laser that could be heard throughout the Tetra Galaxy. The Infinity Void and the Oubliette were now sealed.

"Damn. Nothing. No clu-" he started to say, but then froze. Something was in front of him. It was a spirit of an Alimbic Elder, which was held in one of the Octoliths!

"Spire. What have you just done? This was the wors possible time to close the Infinity Void. We opened the Void originally to trap a Gorea. But, although Samus Aran opening it allowed her to destroy it, closing it again may just bring its spirit into the rest of the Alimbic Cluster It will also cause more Goreas to fall onto the other planets and space stations, destroying them!"

Spire was in shock. "You mean... wait. How would it bring back the spirit of the strongest ever Gorea?"

The Elder spirit spoke again. "The spirit cannot be held in the Infinity Void. No spirits can. It will escape, and become an unbeatable foe. Spirits cannot easily be harmed."

Spire then dropped his gun and turned his head toward the ground. "I failed. I just made it so we can't win this war, just because of my own greed. I failed."

"No you have not. There is one thing that can destroy the Spirit Gorea. Follow me," the Elder's spirit stated, emotionless.

Spire, despite his hatred of himself at the time, started to follow the Elder. It took him back to the Alinos Gateway. But, they went behind the small pillar that holds the ships. They were heading towards the lava flow in the back!

"The Diamonts have a resistance to heat, correct?" The Elder asked.

"Yeah, of course. Kinda obvious," Spire replied.

Walking through the lava flow brought them into a huge path. When they got to the end, there was some kind of glowing platform.

"Spire. This platform controls another part of the Alimbic Cannon. It was a weapon with this function, used during wars. Unfortunately, it will have to be used again. Think of what you want to destroy, then step on the platform."

He was once again in shock. He could have sworn the Alimbics were a peaceful race. But... a weapon like this, stronger than the Omega Cannon, only it was not sealed.

Despite these thoughts, he thought of the image of the Spirit Gorea and stepped on the platform. Nothing happened.

"Something is wrong. This function was only used in dire circumstances. Since it has not been used for hundreds of years, I will try to, as you say, speed it up. It has been accepted your target, though. You may go back to your mission. Although the Diamonts' past is important to you, you must discover it later." The Elder was very clear.

Spire bowed his head, then turned into his alternative form for more speed. The spiked, morph-ball like Dialanche was not very fast, but still faster than his biped form. He then got into his ship and headed towards the Vesper Defense Outpost.

As soon as he got there, he found the hunters at the Gateway.

"Spire! Where the hell were you!" Samus yelled.

"I'm sorry. I was being selfish, looking for my past. So selfish, in fact, I thought closing the Infinity Void would help me find out about my pa-" He said, but got cut off.

"YOU CLOSED THE INFINITY VOID!" Almost half the hunters yelled. They knew the dangers of it; more Goreas would appear where they are.

"But, I have also discovered more than that. On Alinos, I was led by an Alimbic Elder's spirit. He showed me a weapon built into the Alimbic Cannon. I will not speak the location, however. It will not help defeat the Goreas."

"Okay. We'll talk about this later. Now, we need another plan. We could not find enough parts to build this weapon. It works, but can only cover one planet at a time. And it also needs to charge after every shot. It'll never work," Samus was saying.

"Also, taining Goreas may give us more teammates, but they are not easy to train, despite how fast I trained Kraid-2 here. They are also not that much of an asset to our team. They can only kill one other Gorea at a time. We need a new plan," Weavel stated. He was right. Training Goreas wasn't worth it.

"I have an idea. First, we kill one of the Goreas with the Omega Cannon. We extract it out of it, then give it to each of us." Noxus said. His plan might just work.

"We'll split into teams again. Noxus, you and Tra-" Samus began.

"HIM AGAIN! THAT BASTARD TRIED TO KILL ME!" Noxus screamed.

"Shut up and settle down. As I said before, I'm gonna be a traitor again. A traitor to the Kriken Empire," Trace said. Judging by the look in his eye, he meant what he said.

Sighing, Noxus agreed to work with Trace.

"Okay then. Noxus, you and Trace go to the Celestial Archives and look for more parts. Kill any Goreas you find. Bring Kraid-2," Samus ordered.

"Raaaawwweeee!" Kraid-2, a trained Gorea, excalimed.

"That just scarred me for life. Anyway, me and Spire will go to Arcterra with Danken. There have been strange events there, judging by the amount of Goreas," she continued. "And Kanden, Sylux, and Weavel, you all go to Alinos. Everyone, kill all Goreas you find, and just keep searching for anything that could help."

Samus finally finished. Just in time, too. At least twenty Goreas were falling right in the Gateway!

"Hurry! Get in your ships and go to your destinations!" Sylux screamed.

Spire's past would just have to wait.


	8. Chapter 8: The Eighth Hunter

Chapter 8 - The Eighth Hunter

Alinos. A rock-like planet filled with lava from a core explosion. This was almost the ninth time the hunters had been here. Well, the ones that were here at the time, anyway.

"Ok. Split up, we'll cover more ground that way. Beware of any Goreas. This war is getting more serious now, so we gotta work fast. The Goreas are closing in. So, kill anything and everything that moves. Got it!" Sylux ordered.

"Does that include you?" Kanden asked jokingly. He and Weavel just laughing at this, while Sylux was ready to kill them both.

"WOULD YOU STOP JOKING AROUND! WE'RE IN A DAMN WAR HERE, THERE'S NO TIME FOR JOKES! Once more, and you're heads'll be in my cargo hold! Now GO!" Sylux screamed. Apparently, he was more serious than before. Noxus even remembered his "$250" comment back in the Federation ship.

Almost immediately, all three of them frantically ran around the known areas of the planet. Weavel ended up in the Combat Hall, forgetting to check his map.

"Hmm... I wonder..." He said to himself. Then, he went over to one of the walls, charged a missile blast, and shot the ground he was standing on. Next thing he knew, he was in an area of complete darkness, able to see through the wall.

"Get the hell outta here! Glitches don't exist in real life!" A shaky voice said from behind. Weavel immediately jumped out of there and tried to forget about that. But, as he was leaving the Combat Hall, he saw what looked like an ice road in the sky above him. Or was it... Phazon...?

Meanwhile, Kanden was stuck in yet another circle of Goreas. Only this time, they weren't in the "alternate form." Although, this time the odds were against him. They all had the Omega Cannon!

"Oh, shit! I gotta get outta here!" Kanden yelled. He knew he had finally met his match. But, he couldn't get out of the "circle!" The Goreas were closing in!

They started glowing. Their "hands" had yellowish orbs starting to form on them. They all started to point right at Kanden. And then...

"NNNOOOOOOOO!"

"What the...?" Sylux said to himself. He had just heard an exposion in the distance. It sounded like it was in the Alinos Perch, a large, outside room with pillars and platforms everywhere. It sounded like the Omega Cannon! He decided to run there immediately. He bent into two Z-shaped sheets of metal, connected by a ball of energy. The Lockjaw. This should get him there fast. He headed to the Perch.

When he finally got there, he was shocked to see at least twenty dead Goreas. But, what was that yellowish lump in the middle? It looked like a dead bug... but on closer inspection, a dead Enoema...

"Kanden..." Sylux managed to say, bending over the body. Although he is usually merciless, there was a tear in Sylux's eye at this time. Unlike with Noxus, Kanden seemed like he actually was killed.

A few minutes later, Weavel finally ran in. He was shocked at the site of the Goreas, like Sylux was, but was even more surpised to see Sylux sitting in the middle of the room. He started to walk over to him, to see what was going on.

"Sylux, what are you doi- oh... my... God... That's what the explosion was..." Weavel was saying to himself. But then, he saw the body. Sylux and Weavel used to hate the other hunters in the beginning. But now, they had lost more than a partner. They had a lost a friend.

After destroying at least one hundred Goreas, and finding a few more parts to use for the weapon, Samus, Spire, and Denkan started to head to the Alinos Gateway. It has been at least a day, and they agreed to meet up on Alinos after every day for another meeting.

But, when they got there, they could have sworn they saw Noxus flying. But, Noxus was right next to them. Who, or what, was that? It seemed to be heading to the Alinos Perch.

"Hey. Where're Sylux, Weavel, and Kanden?" Spire wondered. He knew they would be the first to arrive, since they started on Alinos today. But, they weren't here.

"I can't believe this. He's gone..." Sylux and Weavel were still depressed from Kanden's death. But, that's when Weavel noticed something.

"Wait. Who the hell is that?" Weavel said, pointing to a figure in the distance. It was sliding on a sheet of Phazon (or maybe just ice) like the sheet he saw before!

"Huh? It's coming towards us, whatever it is," Sylux was saying, ready to fight. He got his shock coil ready, but that's when he heard a hiss-like voice.

"I do not wish to harm you. I have been traveling, and noticed something happening in the Tetra Galaxy. I have been looking for lifeforms other than these monsters," he pointed to a dead Gorea, "and you were the first I have found. You can drop the guns!" He explained. But he saw Weavel and Sylux getting ready to shoot him.

"Who are you? And what do you want with us!" Sylux ordered. He was not sure if he could trust this person. He seemed like a light blue, thin Vhozon, however.

"Oh. Sorry, sorry. My name is Rundus. I am an intergalactic bounty hunter. Due to unknown reasons, I cannot tell you my race. But, the Glactic Federation said they may hire me to help take down Dark Samus, when, and if, it returns. Now, who are you two?"

"You mean three," Weavel said.

"Three?" Rundus asked. From what he's seen, there were only two.

At this time, Sylux pointed to Kanden's body, which they hadn't moved at all.

Rundus was very shocked. "How did this happen?"

After he asked this, Weavel pointed to a random one of the dead Goreas. "Kamikaze Goreas..." he said.

Sylux started to explain. "Anyway, we are also bounty hunters. I am Sylux, from Cyclosis. My race is also unknown to many. I hold a severe grudge against the Federation. And this is Weavel. He used to be a space pirate general, until a battle with one of our partners for this mission, Samus Aran, leaving only his mind and spinal cord intact. They built a power suit for him, similar to Aran's."

"And that... that used to be Kanden, a genetically altered Enoema. He was bent on destruction to a flaw in the experimental process, but eventually developed a good side, like many of us hunters have," Weavel explained gravely.

"Nice to meet you. Anyway, I shall see what I can do for Kanden. I may be able to take his body to the Federation. I hear they had to revive Samus many times. Anyway, I will be around here until the war is over. But, do not let anyone know about me. I am trying to keep my identity hidden mostly. Besides, I will have to work with Samus in a future mission. Anyway, I should leave now. So long." Rundus then carefully picked up Kanden's body and started sliding on a new sheet of ice. Or Phazon, whichever it is.

At this moment, Samus walked in and spotted the Goreas' bodies. "What happened here?" she asked sarcastically. She was also wondering what that silhouette in the sky was, but easily forgot it. But then she became serious.

"Where's Kanden? You three were supposed to meet up in a room, then head back to the Gateway."

"Well, now there's only two. Thanks to twenty Goreas all equipped with the Omega cannon," Sylux said, depressed.

Samus quickly realized what happened. Kanden. Twenty Goreas. Omega Cannon. The Goreas had committed kamikaze. And Kanden was their victim...

At the Gateway, everything was silent. Everyone was mourning the loss of Kanden. Even Trace. They knew now that they really had become a team.

But, where was the body? Only Sylux and Weavel knew, and it would forever remain secret.


	9. Chapter 9: The Hunters and the Hunted

Chapter 9 - The Hunters and the Hunted

The hunters have once again split up, despite Kanden's death. They had to continue the war at all costs, even if it meant the death of a partner. Weavel and Samus stayed on Alinos. Sylux and Trace both headed towards the Vesper Defense Outpost. Noxus and Spire headed to Arcterra, and the two Goreas, Denkan and Kraid-2 went to the Celestial Archives ("They're officially part of the team," Samus had said). At once, six ships and two Goreas flew off to different stations and planets. There was one ship left behind...

Arcterra. A cold, ice-covered environment, covered with Alimbic passages and buildings. Noxus and Spire were looking for anything they could find.

Spire looked in a small passageway, set into the wall, he had just found. Big enough to stand in, but very narrow. There was a little glowing orb inside.

"Nox, come look at this!" He yelled, with his head still in the passage.

Noxus sighed. "What now?"

"Some glowing orb. Looks kinda like Samus's Morph Ball."

Noxus gently pushed Spire out of the way. "What is this?"

"That's why I'm wondering," Spire replied.

Noxus tried to pick it up, and that's when it happened. He started glowing orange, then turned into his alternate form, the Vhoscythe, without his command. He felt an urge of destruction, wanting to kill everything that moves! But, he couldn't control himself! The top-like Vhoscythe soon started to head towards Spire!

"Spire! Run! I.. I can't control myself! That thing locked me in alternate form! It turned me into a hell-bent fiend, killing anything that moves! RUN!" Noxus screamed, in his last seconds of control. Then, he started heading towards Spire!

_Crap! That's that DeathAlt thing! Locks you in alt, steals your control, then kills everything it sees by touch!_ Spire quickly folded up into his alternate form, the Dialanche; a rock-covered spiked ball. Lucky for him, the Dialanche, genetically developed by the first Diamonts, can easily scale walls. But, it was very slow on ground and wall. Too slow to avoid the Vhoscythe!

Spire rolled to the highest wall he could find, and immediately tried to climb it. The Vhoscythe was waiting for him at the bottom. If he fell, he would never know the location, or fate, of the other Diamonts. Possibly, he would cause his race to go extinct, just from falling a short distance.

"You can't stay up there forever, Spire!" Noxus said in a sinister voice. But, there was no way he'd normally say something like that. All Spire could do was keep looking down, waiting for the orange glow of the DeathAlt to fade...

But then, trying to get over to a cliff, Spire felt the spikes of his Dialanche slipping! There was no way he could stay onto the wall! He was too far from the wall to latch onto it again! In a minute, he would land right on top of Noxus, controlled by the DeathAlt. There was nothing left, but fate...

Denkan and Kraid-2 finally felt appreciated. For once, they got to go off on their own, ignoring all the rules.

"Wait here. There's another one right over there. I'll clear the path, you defend," Kraid-2 said to Denkan. (Of course, they are speaking in their normal language. This is just a translation.)

"Right," Denkan replied, getting his version of the Omega Cannon ready. Kraid-2 then turned into his round, gray, alternate form, Gorea 2, and charged up a slight flare. It soon grew to a large ball of flames. He aimed at the Gorea across the room, and fired a flaming laser, causing the Gorea to explode, blood and gore flying everywhere!

"Ok, hurry! Let's go!" Kraid-2 ordered. They kept using this newfound strategy against all the Goreas they found. The other hunters were able to see the explosions from where they were, even.

"Is it just me, or did that one just commit suicide?" Denkan asked, seeing a Gorea jump off into space through one of the many broken areas of the Archives. They just gave each other a blank look, then got back to the fight. But, they wasted too much time! There were at least ten Goreas running towards them!

"Feeling better yet?" Spire asked Noxus, still shocked from the DeathAlt incident. Noxus was feeling slightly ill from the mind control of it. He could barely concentrate.

"Not just yet. Put me back in my ship. I gotta rest up," Noxus said, sounding awful. Spire then grabbed Noxus and brought him back. He then turned on the defense mechanism, shielding the ship. Spire was about to tow Noxus to Alinos, but then, out of nowhere, the bridge from the Sic Transit crashed right next in the Gateway!

"What the hell? Where'd that come from!" Spire shouted. "Nox, I know you're sick, but message the others! Now! They'll get an alert, trust me. Message them, tell em something's wrong! I'll take care of this!"

"A-alright. Unh... I'll do that now," Noxus said, feeling very nauseous. Despite this, he alerted the others about the DeathAlt and the explosion almost immediately. Lucky for the other hunters, they were near the gateway and heard the alerts.

"Oh... my... God..." Spire said, shocked. Something was destroying Arcterra! And not just anything... It was a giant Gorea...

As soon as Spire said this, the Gorea turned toward him, letting out an ear-shattering screech! It started glowing yellow and gray! With one shot, it would destroy all of Arcterra!

"NOXUS!" Spire screamed at the top of his lungs. Luckily, he was only one room away. In the Gateway, Noxus could have sworn he heard Spire call for him. Despite his headache and whatnot, he ran straight for the next room.

"Wha-" Noxus started to say. But, in mid-sentence, he saw the giant Gorea. He was almost paralyzed from it.

"NOX! GO TELL THE OTHERS ABOUT THIS! HURRY!" Spire screamed. Noxus was shocked. He'd never seen Spire like this. And the Gorea just frightened him even more. He ran as fast as he could to his ship.

Samus was speechless. She and Weavel had just rushed back to the Alinos Gateway, hearing the message signal. Listening to the message froze them. A giant Gorea, charging the Omega cannon to full capacity. There was no possible way to defeat it. Unless...

"Weavel! Head there, disctract the Gorea! Tell the others I've got a way to stop it!" Samus ordered. She had no time to explain. Weavel was confused, but headed to Arcterra anyway. He had to stop that Gorea...

Samus, while Weavel left, immediately headed to the Combat Hall. She knew something powerful lied at the core. The problem was, how could she bring it to Arcterra...?

Despite this thought, she squeezed through the Core Passage with her Morph Ball and arrived at the core. The Supreme Metroid was down there, but sensed Samus immediately...

"What the hell? We need her here! This thing'll kill us all, and more! It could lead the Goreas to victory!" Trace shouted, frustrated. All six of them were shooting at the Gorea, trying to stop it. But then Sylux realized. Six? But, Samus wasn't here. How could there be...

That was when he noticed. Kanden was standing right there, fighting alongside the rest of them! Ignoring the Gorea for once, he ran over to him.

"Kanden! How are you here! You were killed by the Goreas!" Sylux shouted. His mind was racing. How was Kanden here?

"Hehehe... Yeah, it's me. But, not how you knew me," he said. He then stuck his arm straight through his torso.

"HOLY SHIT!" Sylux screamed at the top of his lungs. "You... you're fighting alongside us, even though you're only in spirit now?"

"Yep. Now, you wanna talk, or kick some Gorea ass?" Kanden's spirit still had the fighting instinct. They both got back to fighting almost immediately.

There was blood everywhere, from the hunters and the giant Gorea. There were Affinity weapons, Power Beams, Missiles, and fire flying everywhere. They were able to stop the Omega Cannon shot, but now it was using the hunters' weapons and it's own flaming beams.

"AIM FOR THE SHOULDERS, TRACE! IT'S RED! RED MEANS IMPERIALIST WEAKNESS!" Spire ordered. The fight would take forever. But this thing seemed unstoppable. The hunters may have met their match...

Underground, in the Alinos core, Samus was having a very difficult time with the Supreme Metroid. The spider-like legs, the giant lasers made of ice, electricity, plasma, and a power beam-like substance, the two huge arms with razor-sharp claws, and the tubular, drooling, deadly mouth. There was no way Samus could live through this thing. It had the ferocity of an Omega Metroid, and the attack power (increased by the Phazon it generates) of a Metroid Prime. It would be able to defeat the giant Gorea in one fell swoop, but how would she get it there?

But then, while trying to avoid it using her Morph Ball, it sucked her into its mouth! The teeth were closing in, and she could feel the heat increasing. It was going to eat her, and there was no way to escape... She would soon be swallowed...


	10. Chapter 10: Uncontrollable

Chapter 10 - Uncontrollable

The saliva of the Supreme Metroid was seeping into the cracks of Samus's Morph Ball. There was no way she could live through this. The Metroid would soon swallow her, and digest her, and then...

She couldn't bear the next thought. Her life started to flash before her eyes. But then, one memory stuck in her mind. She pictured herself, with her scan visor equipped. She was in a Space Pirate base. All of the computers translated to data about a different type of Metroid. Metroid Larva, Hunter Metroid, Omega Metroid... Each one told the weaknesses, powers, and even detail about their insides. Omega Metroid... she payed attention to this part of the memory more than the rest...

Omega Metroids have a weakness on the front of their torso, and this thing is part Omega Metroid! She decided to wait until she got swallowed. It smelled awful, the odor seeping through the Morph Ball. Ignoring this, she rolled to a spot in the stomach where she could slightly avoid the stomach acids. She couldn't have her Power Suit melt away; she can fight without it, but it would give her a minimal chance of survival. _Damn it, only one Power Bomb left! _she screamed in her head.

Despite this, she dropped a small, glowing orb. It starting glowing brighter, then there was a blinding flash! The Power Bomb hit the weak spot from the inside of the Metroid! Samus felt herself being pulled somewhere. The Metroid was regurgitating! Ignoring how disgusting this was, Samus got back to the fight. She had to get this thing to Arcterra before it was too late...

"Nox! Gorea, ten o'clock!" Trace ordered. Almost immediately, Noxus turned and shot a Gorea right in the shoulders with the Imperialist (by now, the hunters had all received each others' weapons). Then, with one more shot, straight to the head, the Gorea was destroyed!

The other hunters, and the spirit of Kanden, were all fighting the giant Gorea. It was being held off slightly, but now it was commanding normal sized ones to distract them! Noxus and Weavel held these off, Weavel with his Halfturret, and Noxus with the Affinity weapons. It wouldn't work for long, though.

"TRACE! BEHIND YOU! GRAY GOREAS, CIRCLE!" Kanden's spirit screamed. He knew if he didn't warn Trace, he would suffer the same fate; death. The Goreas were becoming more intelligent; they had strategies to destroy the hunters...

Sylux ran over to Trace and helped fend off the Goreas. They couldn't allow them to fire Omega Cannon shots. Sylux was easily able to trap them in electric wires with his Lockjaw. Apparently, it doesn't harm Goreas, but it's enough to trap them. With one more bomb triangle, they would all be stuck together, unable to move. The Goreas may have strategized, but they were still unable to cooperate well. They would end up killing themselves, once trapped.

The giant Gorea was unstoppable. It could command others at will, and had power too great to live through. The hunters were outmatched...

Samus was in a crack in the wall, where the crab-like Supreme Metroid couldn't reach. She had to think of a plan. Watching the Metroid very closely, she started to think.

_It seems to track down prey until it either kills or consumes it..._ Just with this knowledge, she was able to think of a plan. Almost immediately, she jumped out of the crack and started taunting the Metroid.

"Hey, fat ass! You want some? Come get some," she said in a mocking tone, aiming her arm cannon at the Metroid's eyes. She fired six shots, and ran as fast as she could to the escape. Just like she planned, the Metroid dug through the bottom of the chamber, like the Metroid Prime she had fought in one of her most recent missions. It was heading for the planet's surface. All she had to do was get to her ship, paralyze the Supreme Metroid in some way, then tow it to Arcterra.

Reaching the surface, she started to hear clawing and screeching noises. Next thing she knew, there was a dead gorea at her feet. She had to hurry to her ship, before the Metroid escaped! There was no way she could make it, though...

Kanden suddenly felt that something was wrong. Although he traveled back to the mortal world, he still had tie-ins with the spirit world. He somehow sensed that Samus was in trouble.

"I have to go! I can't say why, but I do! Fend off the Goreas at all costs!" he yelled to the others. He disappeared in a puff of smoke (well, it looked like smoke), and headed to Alinos.

Lucky for Samus, the Metroid left a trail of destruction everywhere it went. But then, it went to the Gateway. A dead end. And it couldn't dig through the lava. But then, a blueish, smoke-like substance appeared in front of Samus! It faded after a while, and she almost passed out at what she saw.

Kanden.

"Came to help. Remember, I was created to be the ultimate soldier. I might not be able to kill this thing, but I can stun it. What the hell is it, anyway?" Kanden said confidently.

"Supreme Metroid. A fusion of an Omega Metroid and a Metroid Prime. I'm guessing the Space Pirates may have created it, but it escaped to the nearest planet off of one of their frigates; Alinos. It has the power to destroy the giant Gorea. But it may be uncontrollable," Samus explained. As soon as she finished, they both ran straight towards the other end of the Gateway, avoiding the lava any time they could.

"Aim for the blue thing on the stomach!" Samus ordered. Missiles and Volt Driver shots immediately fired toward the light blue, pulsating orb on the stomach, slightly protected by what looked like an outer rib cage. The Metroid screeched in pain, but quickly got over it. They fired everything they had, but the Metroid was still standing! Bleeding, but still able to attack. That's when it ran full speed towards Samus! Kanden only saw one thing; the Metroid running, and Samus lying on the ground motionless, blood covering the inside of her visor...

"Wha...? What happened..?"

"You got trampled by that Metroid. Your Power Suit is in your cargo hold. Had to get it off to heal those slashes. Whole inside was covered in blood. Cleaned it, though. I'm gonna go take this Metroid to the Gorea. You get your Power Suit back on and meet us there," Kanden explained. He headed out of Samus's ship (his was damaged still), and went to untie the sleeping Metroid from the back of the ship. It was a difficult travel, with the Metroid pulling the ship down, but they made it.

_Wait a minute... He got the Supreme Metroid here!_ Samus thought while getting into her Chozo Power Suit. With her suit only half-way on, she ran straight for the Sic Transit.

As soon as she had her suit on and she arrived at the Sic Transit, she was shocked. The giant Gorea was lying on the ground, the whole room was covered in blood, but now the hunters were fighting the Metroid.

"SAMUS! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND HELP US!" Trace screamed. The Metroid was firing everything it could at them. Samus could see slashes on Sylux, and there was a black spot, from a Plasma shot, on Noxus. Kanden's spirit was nowhere to be found.

"Aim for the blue orb! That's the weak spot! Also aim for the eyes, that'll blind it!" she ordered. The Metroid was screeching, but it was too strong! Sylux was getting tired of this, and immediately ran straight up to the Metroid. This must be how he got scratched. Ignoring this, Sylux set up his Shock Coil, an electric coil that latches itself onto the nearest life form and sucks their energy into his life supply. The Metroid was about to slash Sylux again!

As soon as he saw this, Weavel ran up to the Metroid, fired a barrage of green, explosive Battlehammer shots, distracting the Metroid! It turned to attack Weavel, and that's when he placed his Halfturret and used his top half to run to the others. It was an effective combination, but it soon destroyed the turret, and slashed away Sylux!

Samus fired all of her homing missiles at the Metroid. The cage protecting the orb fell off with one of her last missile blasts! The orb dropped out of the Metroid with a sickening thud. Almost immediately, the Supreme Metroid stopped moving! The bloodstained creature fell to the ground, eliminated.

"Alright, move it! Get to the ships! This war isn't over yet!" Samus ordered. They had won a great victory against their strongest foes so far in this war, the Goreas were still coming. They had to find the source of the Goreas.

"Kanden. Wake up," a hisslike voice said.

Kanden sat up, and was wondering what happened. That's when he noticed it; he was in a Federation base. There was some kind of machine above him, letting down an orange light. It seemed to give him strength.

He was wondering why he had faint memories involving a Metroid-like creature, and another involving a giant Gorea. That's when he noticed the person talking to him. He looked like a Vhozon, but light blue. He also looked like metal, although he wasn't.

"Who are you, and why am I in a Federation base! And what's with these strange memories? I want answers!" Kanden ordered.

"I am Rundus. Intergalactic bounty hunter. I encountered two members of your team, Sylux and Weavel, about two weeks ago. On Alinos. Your body was lying there, motionless. They explained what had happened. I took you here, because of their advanced technology. They had to revive Samus Aran many a time, and I thought they may be able to do the same for you. I stayed here since then. You may go back to the war now. I shall bring you there. Just follow the ice," Rundus explained. Kanden was shocked. This was a second life? How did he die in the first place? But that's when he remembered; the twenty Goreas closing in on him, all with the Omega Cannon. He would get his thoughts straightened out later. Now was the time for battle.

Rundus created a sheet of ice leading out of the base and heading toward the Tetra Galaxy. Kanden stepped onto it, and both of them traveled to Alinos. Kanden was now ready for anything.

_Those Goreas won't stand a chance._


	11. Chapter 11: A Day of Training

Chapter 11 - A Day of Training

The hunters had finally defeated the giant Gorea, and the Supreme Metroid as well. Unfortunately (but fortunate for various life forms) , the dead bodies could not be removed. After this battle, they traveled to Alinos. Samus had an important event planned, but had not told any of them just yet. She led them to the Combat Hall, a small, rectangular room with no roof, two pathways for alternate forms on the second level (one on each side, both connected by a bridge), and a very thin hallway stretching the length of the base level. The name matched the feel of the room perfectly.

"That fight was only the beginning. There will still be more; maybe not as challenging, but still more. Remember, one Gorea was enough to push the Alimbics to extinction. Until we find the source of the Goreas, there will be many battles. So, we will travel throughout Alinos, Arcterra, and the two stations for most of today. In every area, I will point out rooms that can be used as battle arenas. This area, as you know, is the Combat Hall. It was used by the Alimbics for military training. We will use it for this purpose."

Samus finally finished her speech. Judging by her serious tone, the hunters knew this would be important, like she had stated earlier that morning.

"Now, who would like to fight here?" Samus asked with the same tone of voice.

The hunters were all shocked. They hadn't know they would be fighting each other. They had survived encounters like this before, though, so they soon got over this uneasy feeling. Weavel then stepped forward.

"Weavel, due to various 'findings' here, you cannot participate in this battle," Samus said when she saw him volunteer. He would have to wait until the next arena.

"Also, there are some rules to this training. First of all, you may not stay in your alternate form for more than one minute at a time. This is mainly just because of the fact that Goreas are more vulnerable to your BiPed forms than your alternates. Also, it is not an honorable tactic, and we must not degrade ourselves, even if it is war. Sylux, Noxus, Spire, and Kande- KANDEN!" Samus shouted, shocked. She could have sworn that Kanden had died and was now helping them in spirit. But, this wasn't a spirit. He was the real Kanden. _But how...? _Samus wondered.

"Yep, I'm back. Can't say how, due to secrecy reasons. All I'm saying is that it involved another hunter and a Save Station. But now's not the time. We gotta train hard if we're gonna win," Kanden explained. He seemed different, somehow. Maybe while he was helping in spirit, he gained more confidence and the like. But as he said, now is not the time. They had to train.

"Get it off me! Get this damn fire off me!" Sylux was screaming. He, Spire, Kanden, and Noxus were fighting in the Combat Hall for their first training round. Samus had equipped them with Federation technology, allowing them to fade and respawn somewhere else when attacked enough, to keep them from getting injured. (Of course, it cannot be used against Goreas, since they can detect the spawn points.)

Anyway, Spire had just fired a charged Magmaul shot at Kanden, lighting him on fire. He immediately transformed into his worm-like Stinglarva, jumped off the ledge he was perched on, and ran straight towards Spire, dropping homing bombs in his path.. A light blue, shadowy figure was left in Spire's place, soon disappeared, and then Spire was at the opposite end of the arena. _Wow, that thing really works_, Spire thought as soon as he appeared there.

At the other side of the Combat Hall, Noxus was charging up a Judicator shot while trying to dodge Kanden's bombs. The Stinglarva slithered around, following everywhere, and dropping the regenerating portion of his tail. (This portion is the bomb). Noxus finished charging his shot, and as soon as Kanden went back into his BiPed form, he fired! Kanden instantly froze, unable to move or speak! _Well, this is gonna turn out badly_, he thought to himself. Sure enough, Noxus fired several Judicator shots at his head, and as soon as he unfroze, he vanished and reappeared somewhere else. This practice would continue until their next arena.

On Arcterra, Samus, Weavel, and Trace were training in a small, underground area. Half of the bottom floor was a sheet of ice with several pillars. There were small corridors around the area. The second floor was a horseshoe-shaped platform with several holes. Samus had called it Sanctorus.

Weavel saw a strange object in the midst of battle. He jumped over to the pillar it was on, and observed it closely. But when he picked it up, it started glowing. Then, all of a sudden, it spread out and covered every inch of his Space Pirate Power Suit! He started glowing purplish-blue, and felt a rush of power coursing through his veins. He felt almost supercharged, even. But then, someone shot him in the back! He looked behind him, and saw his former-rival smirking at him. He then turned around and got back into the fray. He got his BattleHammer ready, and shot green, exploding orbs towards Samus. Once the fifth one hit, Samus "died" and regenerated in another area of Sanctorus. She immediately walked over to him, ignoring the training.

"What the hell was that! Five BattleHammer shots don't kill someone with full health! And why are you glowing blue, by the way?" Samus yelled, wondering if Weavel was somehow cheating, getting stronger shots than he should.

"I don't know. I saw this orb on that pillar over there," he started, pointing to the pillar. "I tried to pick it up, but it enveloped me, basically. I felt a strange rush of power. Yeah, look. It's over there again now. I don't have a scan visor, but you do, right? Scan it and see what it is," Weavel finally finished explaining.

Samus, sure enough, set up her scan visor and scanned the orb. "Double Damage. Increases the power of whoever touches it. It is unknown how it works; all that is known is it increases the substance that Metroids absorb when latched onto someone..."

"These could help in the war. They regenerate a lot, too. After our training we should try to take some of them with us. We just gotta make sure they don't touch us. Ok, back to the fight!" Weavel shouted.

As soon as he said this, Samus shot him right in the head. With fast thinking, Weavel split into his HalfTurret, and ran, using his hands, toward Samus. The turret shot anyone that came by, and soon enough, Trace had to respawn from being shot by it. (He was shot while sleeping; he was waiting for Samus and Weavel to rejoin the training, so he fell asleep).

The training in Sanctorus and the Combat Hall lasted for about another hour. Samus, Weavel, and Trace headed to the Combat Hall to get the others and tell them their new opponents and arenas.

"Okay, this training is working out well. With a small computer program I wrote, I can determine a skill ranking for each of you at the end of the training. We all have two more arenas to train in. After that, I'll use this pro-" Samus explained, but in the middle of her training, an explosion was heard behind them! Seven Goreas had entered the Combat Hall! They seemed like an elite squadron (even though they have no teams; they just seemed stronger than the others), and were all ready for battle. One by one, they jumped off the ledge and landed next to the hunters!

"Reeeawww!" One Gorea shouted. It seemed to be the strongest of these ones!

"Alright, time to put this training into action! We'll train again in a few days. Just fight these Goreas!" Samus ordered.

Trace immediately ran for a ledge. He went to the back of the Hall, into a tunnel (using his Triskelion), and stopped at the end. He then went out of his alternate form, and got ready to snipe some Goreas. He saw one of them heading towards Noxus! But it was red... that meant Imperialist weakness! The Gorea was about to shoot Noxus! There was no way he would be able to survive that shot! Trace tried to focus his Imperialist on the Gorea's shoulder, and then he fired! The arm completely faded away! With fast aim, he shot the other shoulder! The Gorea's armor was weakened! He then shot it with a direct headshot! Next thing anyone knew, the Gorea completely exploded!

"Hey, Trace! Watch where you're sniping! You got Gorea blood all over me!" Noxus complained. He really did look like a puddle of Gorea blood due to that.

"Sorry about that! Nox, that one's current weakness is the Judicator!" Trace yelled, pointing at a Gorea coming towards them. Noxus ran straight for it, but couldn't dodge its MagMaul shots! He was on fire! Luckily, his Judicator was cold enough to go through the flames. In a few minutes, the whole Combat Hall was a blood-covered arena, with two dead Goreas.

"So, you think you can beat us, huh? Let's see what you think about that... when you're in Hell!" Samus taunted the leader of these few Goreas, while sidestepping to dodge its attacks. It had the Omega Cannon equipped, but she discovered one thing about them. Missiles are the weakness of Goreas with the Cannon! With quick thinking, she charged up a Missile blast, and fired! With a few more shots, the arm vaporized! She repeated this with the other arm, then the head. The whole Gorea exploded!

At the Alinos Gateway, the hunters were having another meeting.

"Okay. That was unexpected. But if we were all able to kill one Gorea each in just ten minutes, then we should be able to win this war. But we also need to find the source of the Goreas. Remember, since the closing of the Infinity Void, there have been even more Goreas appearing. Throughout the next week, will we attempt to find the source of these Goreas. It is somewhere out of the Tetra Galaxy, so we will need to travel far. There will be many obstacles. Tomorrow we will improve our ships' weapons and armor for the travel. Now, get to sleep. We need all the energy we can get," Samus stated. All of the hunters soon left to their ships, which were all in different areas of the Gateway. All of the hunters, except Spire.

"Samus. Wait. I need to tell you something," Spire said, slightly nervous. The Elder's spirit had told him not to tell this to anyone, but he needed to. It was a desperate situation.

"Don't worry about it. Just go back to your ship," Samus said, seemingly distracted. She started to go into her ship.

"WAIT! This is important!" Spire shouted. What he needed to say could mean the difference of winning the war or having Goreas invade the universe.

"Fine. Just tell me what you need," she said, slightly annoyed.

"Follow me. I need to show you something," Spire said. He turned his head towards the flowing lava at the back of the Gateway.

Samus decided to see what was so important. Following Spire, they reached the shore of the lava, behind the ship. There were no platforms, though, so this could be risky.

"Spire. Wait. I need to know one thing about this," Samus said nervously. She was almost positive there was a path behind the lava flow, but would she survive that long?

"What do you need to know?" he replied.

"Judging by what you said, there's a path behind that lava. But there's no way I would survive that long if it's covered in lava, even with jumping. Do you have any kind of boots or something, maybe?" Samus asked.

"Crap. Forgot, you can't walk in that. Sorry, I don't have anything. You're gonna have to, er, stand on my shoulders or, uh, something." Spire was embarrassed by this, but it would be the only way to get Samus across.

"This is war. If it's for something important, it has to be done," Samus said seriously.

After awkwardly getting into the cave behind the lava, and finding the platform at the end of the path, Spire noticed the Elder's spirit was there. But why...?

"Welcome back, Spire. I have told you to keep quiet about this until it is finished, but I know you are getting closer to defeating the Goreas. Only you two must know about this, though. Samus Aran. I welcome you. This is the second control of the Alimbic Cannon," the spirit said, gesturing toward a room that looked like a smaller version of the other control. "The Alimbic Cannon, as you probably do NOT know, was our last attempt at defeating the Gorea. We decided to use the Seal Sphere and this Cannon to lock it away forever, though, since the weapon did not work. But, you may find a use for it. It is currently, charging its energy, though. You have to wait one Alimbic cycle, or as you humans say, a month, before it is finished charging. I will summon both of you when it is finished. You may go now." The Elder hadn't given Spire or Samus a chance to speak. But when Samus tried to ask him something at the end of this speech, he had faded away.

"Well, now for another awkward trip back to the Gateway," Samus said, embarrassed. Despite this, it was their only way to travel back. Hopefully, in a few days, the source of the Goreas could be found... and eliminated...


	12. Chapter 12: The Source of the Goreas

Chapter 12 - The Source of the Goreas

"Alright, we have a lot to do and not much time to do it! These Goreas are starting to overrun the Alimbic Cluster. They'll have to spread to other areas of the Tetra Galaxy soon, and after that... Well, don't think about that. We have to search for where these things are coming fro-" Samus was explaining in the Alinos Gateway. Sylux had cut her off at the end, but he seemed like he had something important to say.

"Wait a minute. Even if we do find the source and destroy it, there's still more than a thousand Goreas to kill! How are we supposed to do that without getting killed first? We may be able to take down a lot at a time, but that's just too many!" Sylux told the others worriedly.

"We'll have to think of that later. First we have to find out what the source of these demons is. As soon as we find it, we'll decide how to attack. Remember, we still have the Ali-" Samus continued. As soon as she started to mention the Alimbic Cannon, though, Spire elbowed her in the side.

"Don't mention that to the others until a dire circumstance," Spire whispered sternly to Samus.

"Oh, right. Anyway, everyone, get into your ships, fire up your aerial weapons, and search the outskirts of the Alimbic Cluster for anything that may be the source of the Goreas!" She ordered to the others. The other hunters walked away, and headed to their ships immediately.

"Despite the fact that she saved our lives a couple times in this war, Samus really can be a bitch," Trace said to Noxus on their way to their ships.

Samus then jumped onto the top of her StarShip, stepped on the hatch, and walked into the cockpit of her ship. With one press of a button, the ship came to life. The three landing pads bent over, causing the ship to levitate slightly, and immediately flew away from Alinos. She stopped in mid-flight, like the other hunters, and stepped onto the hatch. From the top of the ship, she could observe where the Goreas were coming from. But it was no use. The Goreas seemed to be coming from all directions.

"Trace. Use your sniper to look farther into the distance. Look for an area with more Goreas coming from it!" Samus said into her ship's communication system. Almost immediately, Trace was standing on top of his ship as well, and set up his Imperialist sniper. He then headed back into his ship.

"I found it. Eighty-seven degrees to the left. There are several more Goreas coming from over there. Set your ships on autopilot!" Trace ordered. Seven ships soon headed in this direction, hoping to find something.

"Everyone. Keep a lookout for any kind of creature or machine launching Goreas. It has to be close, considering most of the Goreas landed in the Alimbic Cluster.

Several hours passed. There was still no sign of the source.

"This is hopeless. The Goreas must be spawned in deep space, without anything creating them," Weavel stated. But that's when he noticed it. An extremely fast Gorea was flying near them, looking for a landing! It flew past, but it didn't matter. Weavel knew what was happening.

"WAIT! Never mind! We found the source! Thirty-six degrees to the right! I just saw a Gorea fly by, and it was going faster than the others were!" Weavel transmitted to the others. He led the group to this direction, hoping he was right. The source had to be this way.

After some more Gorea sightings, and about another hour of space travel, Trace had found something with his sniper.

"Oh... my... God... What the hell is that...?" He said, breathless. There it was. The source of the Goreas. A giant spaceship was shooting Goreas out of a funnel-like object. And the object was half the size of the ship. An ominous feeling surrounded it. Everywhere the hunters could see on it was heavily armored. More and more Goreas came out every second. But how was a ship creating Goreas...?

All of the hunters felt a mixture of awe, shock, and horror. This was what they had been looking for throughout the entire war. Samus stepped onto the top of her ship and observed this machinery closely. On close observation, she soon learned the most horrifying part of this whole war.

"Samus. What did you find?" Kanden asked, still terrified.

"I know who this belongs to..." Samus stated gravely. There was no denying what it was.

"I also know," Weavel stated in the same tone. "It belongs to my people. It is a Space Pirate project..."

Everyone was in even deeper shock once he had said this. They had all heard rumors about the Space Pirates. Samus had fought them many a time. And Weavel is a cybernetic one of their species. These beings struck fear into the hearts of many, and the hunters were no exception. This couldn't be a normal Space Pirate objective, though. They only destroy to get rare objects and creatures (like Phazon, in Samus's previous mission on Tallon IV). But there was nothing to search for here, and nothing they would need Goreas for. But the hunters decided to worry about this later. They had to destroy the ship and everything in it.

"Alright guys. We're going in. We must infiltrate this ship. They know about me, though. And Weavel, I'm sure they figured out by now that you are a rebel. Trace, you have cloaking abilities, and Noxus, you can freeze any guards. You two will go in there and find some information about it. The rest of us will stand by here. Remember, if necessary, use a freeze-and-headshot combination. Kill everything that finds you, and be careful in there. I've dealt with these guys before. Extremely dangerous," Samus finished. They had to find something about this place. What were they searching for, and how were they creating Goreas...?

Noxus and Trace finally reached the ship. They jumped out onto the surface, and instantly began searching for computers of any sort. According to Samus, Space Pirates held most of their data in high-tech computers. Before they started searching for the computers, though, they noticed something. There were metal crates all over this docking bay. But heavily hidden and disguised were some turrets; extremely strong turrets. Trace set up his Imperialist and started to cloak. He zoomed in with his sniper, and carefully aimed at the very bottom of the turret.

"Noxus. Be ready to run. Remember what happens with this. I fire, and it could be an instant kill. But it also reveals my location. If there are any guards nearby, they'll see where we are. So just be ready. I'll take out the turrets, and I'll meet up with you after. Hide behind that crate over there for now," Trace explained and ordered in a hoarse whisper.

Noxus ran behind the crate, as Trace had said to do. But unknown to either of them, one of the turrets was located nearby. Noxus noticed something on his radar, and looking at it, found the location of the turret. It was somewhere directly in front of him. But where...?

"Oh, crap," Noxus whispered to himself, frustrated. He knew what was about to happen.

Trace heard a huge explosion, like a bomb blasting through metal, and then a scream. Both sounds came from where Noxus was! Looking around, all he could see was a turret firing and blood gushing from something! Noxus!

"NOXUS!" Trace screamed. Without thinking, he started to fire his Imperialist everywhere. When he finally regained his self-control, he aimed carefully at the turret's weak point.

"I just need one shot at this..." Trace said to himself. With a deafening explosion, Trace destroyed the turret. But the other turrets were able to detect this, and started firing everywhere!

"JUST RUN! WE GOTTA GET INSIDE!" Noxus ordered. Luckily, he wasn't as injured as the incident in Arcterra, when Trace almost killed him. He would worry about his injuries later. Right now they had to find that data.

"Alright. So, Space Pirates are somehow creating Goreas, all with our abilities. That first one I fought must have had some Pirate technology in it that transferred whatever it sapped from us to this ship. Most of them probably have some kind of implant that does this, considering the Goreas have the Omega Cannon now. So, we are now in a more dangerous war. These beings are intelligent, much more advanced than the Goreas. They somehow discovered a way to create their own Goreas. The first one must have been a test of a new development," Samus was telling the others, while still waiting a mile away from the ship for Noxus and Trace to return with the data.

Weavel spoke up. "I am a Space Pirate. I know what we are facing from personal experience. Before I became a bounty hunter, I was a Pirate general. I have commanded many armies to victory. We are a highly advanced species. This will be a difficult battle. They know I have become a rebel, so get any plans of me going in posing as my former self out of your head. We need some pla-" But all of a sudden, a small ship, about half the size of his own, flew by overhead! It wasn't just any ship. It was a Space Pirate carrier. And something had just dropped from it.

"GET OFF MY SHIP YOU BASTARD!" Sylux screamed, not realizing his communicator was still on. The others heard this, and looking back, saw a Space Pirate trying to blast its way through Sylux's ship! Next thing they knew there were Pirates all over the tops of their ships!

Samus laughed to herself. "This is pathetic. Normal soldiers? The least they could do is send aerial troopers. Guys, just follow me, I know a way to shake em off. Watch out, though. This is gonna be a bumpy ride."

Samus immediately started flying away from the ship. The others were wondering why, even after hearing the transmission, but followed nonetheless. Samus was flying recklessly, though. Her ship was randomly turning, and a lot of times flipped upside-down. Kanden realized what was going on, and started to do the same thing. The Pirates were holding on for their lives, but it was no use. One by one, they started to fall off, screaming. They would have to stay in space, floating for the rest of eternity. The higher ranked Pirates wouldn't try to rescue them, either. They have stronger units, as they would say.

The other hunters saw what was going on, and repeated what Samus and Kanden had done. The attempt of an attack had failed miserably. Now the hunters had to wait here, fending off any more attacks, until Noxus and Trace got back... if they survived...

"Quiet, a guard's coming! I'll freeze, you headshot," Noxus whispered. He immediately started to charge his Judicator. The guard's footsteps sounded closer. As soon as he took one step into their vision, Noxus fired a sheet of ice, freezing the guard in his tracks!

"Hello, sir. And goodbye," Trace said to the guard's face while he was frozen. Trace immediately shot his Imperialist directly at the forehead of the guard, causing blood and ice to fly everywhere!

"Hurry, there'll be more coming!" Trace ordered. Both of them went into their alternate forms and ran down the pathway.

"Stop! Computer!" Noxus said excitedly, yet quietly. Trace stood in the middle of the pathway, cloaked with his Imperialist set up, ready to headshot any unfortunate guards to come by here. They may see Noxus, but not for long.

Noxus set up his own scanning system and scanned the computer. _This one must be important. It's taking forever to scan it. High security system._

"Trace, be ready. This'll take a while," Noxus said, impatient.

Several headshots later, Noxus had finally finished scanning the computer. Noxus immediately started running back to their ships.

"Trace, hurry! We've hit the jackpot! I'll tell you what it says when we get back to the others!" Noxus said excitedly.

Soon enough, they arrived back at the turret-covered docking bay. Their ships were cloaked, floating next to it. They ran to the edge, avoiding turret fire, and immediately jumped into their ships. They received the data they had come for. Now to think of a plan.

"What took you guys so long? We were almost killed here! They brought over those Phazon Elite Pirates, and had them attack from the tops of ships!" Spire complained.

"The scan took forever, and there was an incident with one of those turrets. I'll heal myself later. But now, we gotta read this scan," Noxus was saying. He then started to read the scan.

"First there's some date and log number gibberish. Not important, so I'll skip to the good stuff.

'We have finally captured the legendary being known as the Gorea. It seems invincible, so we will use it as a weapon. Our cloning system must be completed soon. The hunter does not seem to be anywhere near here, so we are mostly safe. We will test our new weapons by sending one cloned Gorea to the Alimbic Cluster. If it can successfully destroy the life forms on this cluster, we may be able to use these as our primary soldiers.

The cloning system should, and will, be enhanced after it is successful. More than likely these clones will be weaker than the original. The Gorea has defeated many of our best troops in our capturing attempts. We will also attempt to create clones more like the original. We are planning on making one clone the same size of Gorea, but it will take longer than the others. Also, we must send some Goreas to the cluster to protect it from other creatures trying to obtain the Omega Cannon, the Alimbic Octoliths, and any other rare objects, weapons, and creatures we plan on claiming. There is much more we need to do before we reach our goal, though; to destroy Samus Aran.'

That's all it says. Apparently, this scan is a little old, but it tells everything we need to know. There is a cloning process going on here, there is only one real Gorea, and they are trying to destroy us," Noxus finally finished.

"Um, actually, they're just trying to destroy Samus," Sylux said, correcting Noxus.

"They know of us by now, you retard," Kanden replied.

"ENOUGH! This is worse than we thought. They're going to use cloned Goreas as their primary soldiers. Which means these are not real Goreas we've been fighting in the first place. Plus, that giant one back on Arcterra was the size of the only true Gorea. I've marked the coordinates of this ship. This is not a safe area to stay near. Everyone, return to Alinos Gateway," Samus explained.

The hunters all headed back to the Alinos Gateway, all thinking the same thought.

_The war isn't over... nor has it ever started..._


	13. Chapter 13: Infiltration

Chapter 13 - Infiltration

"Okay. Now, we don't have much time to do this. We have to destroy that ship, and kill off the Gorea clones. Plain and simple. But it won't be as simple as it sounds. There's still the matter of the Pirate troops who followed us here. And they definitely have guards and whatnot in the ship. There may be parts that we can use to build the weapon to wipe out the Goreas. So basically, we just head up to the ship, split into teams and search for important data and parts. Any questions?" Samus ordered demandingly.

The hunters were all in their ships, waiting for the order to leave Alinos. They simultaneously started up their weapons and engines. As soon as they saw Samus lift off the ground, they did the same and followed. They had to stop this cloning process before It was too late...

"Alright. We'll split into three teams. Noxus and Sylux are team one. Me, Trace, and Spire will be team two. Kanden and Weavel are team three. Any questions?" Samus ordered demandingly.

"I have a question. What the hell happened to Denkan and Kraid Two!" Trace yelled.

Samus was about to speak again, but off in the distance, she saw two specks coming towards them. All of a sudden a crash was heard! Something was attacking the hunters! But what...?

"What are those things!" Kanden screamed. But looking into the distance, he saw what they were. Two Goreas were coming closer. Denkan and Kraid Two had betrayed them...

"That... can't be... Why are they...?" Weavel tried to speak, but could not. Holding back tears, he went through the hatch to the top of his ship and set up his BattleHammer. He aimed directly at the Gorea clones.

"I'm sorry, Kraid Two," he said to himself. Then he immediately fired green energy shots at one of the Goreas, each one having a very large blast radius. He shot directly at the weak point. Weavel put down his gun, and saw one of the two clones floating in space. Walking back down the hatch, he had only one though. _I just killed Kraid Two..._

After the two Gorea clones were killed (with some regret), the hunters split into their teams and went to the ship. None of them knew about the Space Pirates on this ship. Who knows what could happen...?

"Okay. I used this strategy last time I was here, and it should work fine with your Shock Coil. I freeze any guards, you Coil them. Got it?" Noxus ordered. (Sylux was surprised at how much Noxus had changed.)

"Right. Simple enough," Sylux replied. They then ran straight into the ship and started to bust open doors, trying to find something that might help them.

"Try this door. I'll Shadow Freeze anyone that comes by. There's something in that room, I can sense it," Noxus whispered.

"...Shadow Freeze? What the hell is that?" Sylux asked, confused.

"When I fire a charged Judicator shot, the ice slides across any platform it comes in contact with. If I fire at the floor, the ice will slide toward wherever I'm facing. Freezes anything that it hits. Works almost instantly. Now open the freaking door!" Noxus was getting impatient. He knew that they had to hurry before the Pirates started to use Gorea clones elsewhere...

"Got it!" Sylux exclaimed. Noxus leaned his head over to see what was in there, but before he could see, Sylux quickly slammed the door in his face.

"What was that for!" Noxus screamed angrily.

"High Phazon levels. And there was definitely something breathing in there. I'm guessing Phazon-infused Elite Pirates. This ship is definitely used for more than Gorea clones, that's for sure. ARE YOU LISTENING!" Sylux turned around and saw Noxus scanning a computer. Apparently he hadn't heard a word Sylux said.

"I've got something. The next step in the Gorea cloning. I'll tell you it, but you won't like it," Noxus said gravely.

"Let me hear it. We have to know their every step so we can defeat them," Sylux ordered.

"Alright... It says here that they're almost done with perfecting the clones that are the same size as the original Gorea. Once that's done, they're gonna infuse them with Phazon. Eventually, once the clones are full size and as powerful as the original, the Phazon will make them... unstoppable..." Noxus finished explaining. " Sy, stop standing around and start running! We have to find the containment chamber where most of the cloning is taking place! You realize what could happen!"

"Oh my God... Phazon? I found a blue creature actually CONTROLLING Phazon somewhere on Tallon IV. That stuff was seriously the strongest substance I've ever seen. It turned a Zoomer into some kind of monster! So I have three words. Find that Gorea!" Sylux screamed. He heard guards running, but Noxus used his newly-discovered Shadow Freeze on them. They both immediately ran down the hallway, trying to find their way through all of the intersections. It may be hours before they found where the cloning took place...

"HOW MANY OF THESE THINGS ARE THERE!" Trace was screaming. While trying doors, Samus, Trace, and Spire had ended up in some kind of arena. By the looks of it, this is where they tested the power of different types of Gorea clones. There were stampedes of Space Pirate troopers running in!

Trace was working on close-range sniping, but there were too many to kill. Heads were flying everywhere, but it was no good. They just kept coming. Samus decided to run through with the Morph Ball, boosting through and laying bombs. She successfully cause a few to explode. She gave up on this and started firing missiles. Spire apparently was the strongest pf all three against these opponents. He was able to fire just one charged MagMaul shot, and set at least five troopers on fire. Despite their screams of agony, Spire repeatedly fired MagMaul shots, both charged and uncharged. Flaming Pirates were exploding everywhere you looked. Soon enough, they stopped running into the room. Apparently there were none left to send in.

"Hurry! They ran out of troopers! Just kill these ones! I'll go alert the others!" Samus ordered over the sounds of the guns and the screams. She quickly ran out of the room through the door they came in through.

"Sylux! Kanden! Bring your teams to these coordinates. I think we're getting closer!" Samus ordered confidently over her transmitter. They were closer than they would ever know...

"Okay. We'll be over as soon as possible! Weavel, over here! Enough with the doors, we gotta go! Team Two is probably extremely close to the main controls for the cloning process!" Kanden exclaimed. They immediately started running to the other side of the ship.

"STOP! There's a guard! ElectroLob him!" Weavel ordered in a hoarse whisper. He and Kanden started a rapid barrage of BattleHammer and Volt Driver shots, imitating a prototype weapon called the ElectroLob. The guard quickly turned around, but then fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

"Now hurry!" Kanden ordered. They ran as fast as they could to the other side of the ship, following Samus's coordinates.

"Just get in there! Trace and Spire can't do this alone!" Samus ordered. Noxus, Weavel, Sylux, and Kanden all ran straight into the arena. Trace sniped the last trooper as soon as they came in. He jumped to the ground with ease in front of the others.

"Sorry. Me and Spire took out the rest of em. Maybe we should be a team or something. I'm thinking Team HeatSho- what was that?" Trace stopped talking when a giant thud came out of nowhere. All of the hunters soon looked at the other side of the arena. There were more noises like the previous one, and they seemed to be coming closer. Then with an ear-shattering crash, the entire wall across from them collapsed! And behind it... three Omega Pirates...

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE!" Noxus screamed. The gargantuan Pirates, infused with Phazon, slowly walked over to the hunters, each releasing a threatening roar that shook the entire arena. The whole room was lit by a dim blue light, emanating from the creatures.

"The Omega Pirate can become invisible to normal sight. It is vulnerable when cloaked, as all energy is drawn from defense systems. By exposing itself to Phazon, it can regenerate damaged tissue and organs. Considered the pinnacle of the Elite Pirate program, this enemy should be handled with extreme caution and maximum firepower," Samus read from her log book. "But there's one thing I don't understand. These Pirates are invisible to the naked eye unless they are in a quantity of Phazon. But the only Phazon in here is inside them. How are they visible?"

"I scanned a computer on the way here," Kanden explained. "It said they gave the Omega Pirates some new technology to go invisible at will. Pretty useful, actually. They could intimidate foes like this. But now's not the time. We gotta kill them before they kill us!"

"Alright. Now, everyone set up the MagMaul. I'll use Plasma Beam, as I did last time I fought one of these. See the bluer areas? Those areas are where most of the Phazon is. Fire any sort of heat-based weaponry there, meaning the MagMaul. We should use the Judicator and Ice Beam on those spots first, then the heat weapons. Then once that's done, everyone set up the Imperialist and fire at the head! Got it! Now let's go kick ass!" Samus explained. They split up and ran towards the Pirates. This may be their last battle... these Pirates are stronger than they look.

"One thing!" Samus yelled while firing the MagMaul. She just hoped the others could hear her over the roars of the Pirates and their own yells. "When they go invisible, you without thermal visors go fight the visible Pirates, or run to the back and wait! Me, Sylux, and Weavel will continue fighting!" She fired an Imperialist-like Plasma shot at the Pirate across the room. "Now just keep fighting!"

Seven simultaneous Imperialist lasers shot directly at the face of one of the Omega Pirates. With one last scream, the Pirate exploded, blood and Phazon spewing everywhere! (But there was already so much blood in this room from the Troopers that they couldn't even tell there was more). The other Pirates could not care less, and were still trying to kill the hunters.

"One down, two to go!" Spire exclaimed triumphantly. Noxus ran straight by him with a charged Judicator shot, and ran straight for another Pirate. He jumped as high as he could, grabbed a support beam, and flung himself on top of it.

"SURPRISE!" Noxus yelled, and then he jumped off the beam, flying right next to the Pirate's shoulder, and fired his gun. With a deafening scream of revenge and fury, the Omega Pirate swatted Noxus away, sending him sliding across the floor!

"NOXUS!" Samus screamed. She ignored the battle and ran over to Noxus, who was unable to move. His entire body was covered in blood. Samus couldn't be sure if he would survive this time.

"I'll be alright," Noxus said, trying to catch his breath. "Just go take care of those Pirates and finish the mission. If I don't make it, you can count on me watching out for you guys. For the mean time, I'll try to recover."

"No. I'll try to heal you. The others can take care of the fight for now," Samus said to Noxus. She was just hoping that Noxus would survive.

"Alright, one more!" Trace yelled to the others over the scream of the falling Pirate. He set up the Judicator, as did the other hunters (except Samus and Noxus), and started to fire at separate parts. The Pirate tried to defend itself, but its attempts were useless. All of its Phazon-infused areas were frozen, and the hunters started firing MagMaul shots at them.

"We finally got this down! Now just fire Imperiliast shots at the head and we'll move on to the search for the leader!" Kanden said proudly. The head of the Omega Pirate exploded, spewing blood everywhere. The body fell to the ground with a thundering crash, and this battle was over. The roars and screams had stopped. Samus and Noxus walked over, seeing what had happened.

"Well done. I healed Noxus, but he might not be at full strength just yet. Anyway, now we can go find the captain of this ship and give him a piece of our minds. The cloning is also somewhere near here. But if we can eliminate the leader of these Space Pirates, we can decrease the speed of the cloning. So go find them, stat!" Samus ordered.

"That won't be necessary..." A shadow-like figure entered the room from the other end of the room.

"Who the hell is that!" Trace screamed.

"I am Berng Surdreck. CAPTAIN Berng Surdreck. Your mission ends here..."


	14. Chapter 14: An Epic Conflict

An Epic Conflict, an Epic Surprise

"Who the hell is that?!" Trace screamed.

"I am Berng Surdreck. CAPTAIN Berng Surdreck. Your mission ends here..."

It had happened. The source of the Gorea invasion had been discovered. All the stood in front of bounty hunters Samus Aran, Kanden, Spire, Trace, Noxus, Sylux, and Weavel now was one space pirate. It was over. They had won.

"THIS is what we were trying to destroy this whole time?! This weakling?! He's not even as tall as I am!" Kanden laughed.

"Do not underestimate me..." stated Surdreck in a threatening tone. "For you have no idea who you are facing..."

At this time, Surdreck lashed out with one arm in Trace's direction and knocked him flying across the room without even touching him! All anyone saw was a blinding beam of electricity, and nothing else.

"OPEN FIRE!" Samus ordered. But before anyone could react, Surdreck had fired six more beams faster than any of the hunters could blink! Before they knew it, they were at the opposite side of the arena.

He's stronger than he looks... We cannot fight him just yet. We must stop the cloning first. Samus, still injured from Surdreck's sudden attack, attempted to go into her Morph Ball. But it was no good. Surdeck was able to detect this transformation, and quickly fired another ear-shattering crack of electricity towards Samus, knocking her through the wall! All the other hunters could hear were her screams of agony, and then... nothing. Everything was silent. Everyone was thinking the same thing.

Samus... was killed...

"I'M NOT GONNA STAND FOR THAT!" Spire screamed. Despite the pain, he stood up and ran straight for Surdreck, who had an evil-looking smirk on his face. Spire shot a long-range charged MagMaul shot, which would hit Surdreck head on. The flames scattered around the fireball as it flew towards Surdreck, who had a sinister smirk on his face. As soon as the flaming stone would have hit Surdreck, though, he vanished and the shot smashed directly on the ground!

"Behind you!" Surdreck laughed. As soon as Spire turned around, he was shot straight across the face with a beam, spewing blood everywhere! Spire collapsed on the ground in pain, and soon passed out.

"Pathetic."

"Wha... Where am I? Where is my Chozo power suit?" Samus asked herself as she awakened. Looking around, she noticed the other hunters, but something was wrong. Why were they in containment chambers...? She soon noticed she was also in a tube filled with a green liquid.

What is going on...?

Glancing around the room, her hair flowing into her face, one more tube caught her eye. It was a larger version of the containment chambers. A blue liquid was eerily flowing into it from one side, and a tube on the other side was sucking something out. And in the chamber... was the one, true Gorea... This was the room where the cloning took place...

"Welcome to the laboratory, Samus Aran. Did you have a peaceful slumber? As you can see, this is currently where we clone the legendary Gorea, and infuse it with Phazon. Eventually, these clones will be unstoppable. And as you have noticed, you are in a containment chamber much like Gorea's. Although, we could not use Phazon. There is not much left after you killed the Metroid Prime. But now, see the tubes at the bottom of all of your chambers? They conjoin and lead into one room. You may look in there, if you wish," Surdreck proudly explained.

Samus knew she had no choice. If she stayed in the chamber, whatever was inside this room would become more powerful.

"...Alright. I'll go," Samus stated in monotone.

Surdreck pressed a button on a touch screen, and Samus's chamber emptied, and the glass slowly descended. She immediately reached for her handgun that she had in her Zero Suit (the blue, skintight suit she wears under the Power Suit), and aimed it towards Surdreck. With a large crackle, Surdreck vanished, and reappeared with Weavel's sword (apparently he had taken all weapons from the hunters, including Power Suits from any of them that had them) directly under her chin. She quickly lowered her gun, and soon dropped it.

"Wise choice. Now, follow me. You don't want me to use the Imperialist on your vulnerable head now, would you?" Surdreck threatened. He held up Sylux's gun, which had a red glow in some parts. Samus quickly and reluctantly followed him into the room.

Surdreck entered in some letters and numbers on a keyboard jutting out of the wall, and then had it scan his eye. The door slid open with a hissing noise, and Samus could not believe her eyes. There was a mutant slowly developing in this room.

Its breathing could be heard throughout the room. The creature was hideous. There was a glowing, closed eye on under its visor. The helmet and shoulders were infused with the beast, and had veins bulging out of them. The creature had a roundish shape, and had blazing, flaming pillars protruding from its back. Judging by the waist area, it looked like it could split into two pieces. Samus soon realized what this creature was. She now knew why the hunters were in those containment chambers.

Their DNA was being combined...

The rest of the hunters were soon let out of their chambers and collapsed on the floor. Shortly after, they came to and noticed the Gorea. They had reached their destination...

"Ah, you are all awake," Surdreck said mockingly. Sylux reached for his gun, but noticed something; his gun was missing, along with his entire power suit. He was a vulnerable creature, without a weapon or anything.

"Do not attempt to attack. I can counter every attack you can currently use. Your guns are out of ammunition. You are weak, and I can kill you in a matter of microseconds. Do as I say.. or else. Now, your power suits and your guns are in that room over there. Gather and equip them, and get back here immediately," Surdreck ordered.

The hunters, knowing they were outmatched, walked into the storage room and found their equipment.

"Ah, glad to have my suit back. Even in war it's embarrassing to be naked in public," Sylux stated. They headed back to Surdreck, who was opening another door. What was going on...?

"Ah, you are ready. Now, I can wipe you out in no time at all. But I would rather make you suffer. Now.. GET IN THERE!" Surdreck ordered as he shoved the hunters into the room. The door slammed shut behind them, and fog filled the room. Only Samus knew what was ahead...

The fog in the room soon abated, and the room was revealed to the hunters. A humanoid creature stood in front of them, in a mutated ball form with a tail and a blade. A crunching, electronic noise was heard, and the creature bent backwards. It was now standing on two legs, with a deadly glare in its visor. And all seven of them realized what this was...


End file.
